SPRUCE GOOSE: Today is the 70th anniversary of the first and only flight of Howard Hughes’s prototype for a huge wooden flying boat.
The H-4 Hercules, formerly called the HK-1 Hercules and referred to by critics as the Spruce Goose, can now be found at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Oregon.
Mike Krakat of Bradford stopped by to tell us about the anniversary. See, his father was at that time serving in the United States Navy on the USS San Marcos (LSD), and he was aboard the watercraft when he saw the flying boat.
Mike shared several facts about the giant aircraft that he found on evergreenmuseum.org and the books “Aviation Year by Year” and “Smithsonian Guide Aviation.”
For instance, it was powered by eight 3,000 horsepower engines, had a wingspan of 320 feet, stood 79 feet tall and weighed 400,000 pounds. It was made of birch and was designed to carry 700 troops.
“Government contract was for the aircraft to be built using no strategic material(s), such as aluminum,” Mike explained, noting that the government contract appropriated $18 million, and Hughes contributed $7 million.
Why did the Spruce Goose never make a second flight?
“Hughes dissatisfaction with the aircraft’s performance resulted in the aircraft never being ‘flown’ again,” Mike said.
CATERPILLAR: That caterpillar that was in Wednesday’s column?
Come to find out it’s not a woolly bear caterpillar as we thought.
Local reader Scott Parisella called to let us
“I found a totally black caterpillar and had the same impression,” he said, explaining that he, too, thought he was seeing an odd all-black woolly bear and was worried we were in for a “rotten winter.”
Then Scott noticed red segments under its fur. He looked it up and determined it was a black, bristly caterpillar that becomes the giant leopard moth. He explained that if you look at it closely, the hair comes out in burst that he said look almost like palm trees.
He found some information on the website of the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in South Carolina.
According to Scott, the caterpillar is not naturally found in areas as cold as Bradford, and he speculated that visited from North Carolina last week may have brought the stowaway on their vehicle.
